Hi - this is Srinivasan Sampathkumar from Triplicane. I have a passion for Marine Insurance, Cricket and of course Temples especially Thiruvallikkeni.
From Sept 2009, I am posting my thoughts in this blog ; From July 2010, my postings on Temples & Tamil are on my other blog titled "Kairavini Karayinile " (www.tamil.sampspeak.in)
Request you to keep providing your feedback which will help me improve and present better.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

US elections are over ~
from media perception, it has thrown a surprise result, as they would want us
to believe. In USA, technically, it is
an indirect election in which citizens of the country who are registered to vote in one of the fifty
states or Washington, D.C. cast ballots for members of the U.S. Electoral
College, known as electors. These electors then in turn cast direct votes,
known as electoral votes, in their respective state capitals for President and
Vice President. In modern times, almost all electors are pledged to vote for a
particular presidential candidate, thus the results of the election can
generally be determined based on the state-by-state popular vote.

On an early morning at
around, 2.40am, the media announced the victory of Donald
Trump putting it as a shock victory. “Donald
Trump will be the 45th president of the United States,” said the Fox News
anchor, detonating an explosion of cheers from the crowd, “winning the most
unreal, surreal election we have ever seen.” Clearly, there was a massive
polling failure in 2016 and pollsters misjudged the composition of the
electorate (more rural and more Republican than expected) in their forecasts. But
then that is reflective of the methodology of surveying – not engaging people directly
in the communities where they live.

Donald John Trump is a
businessman. Since 1971 he has chaired The Trump Organization, the principal
holding company for his real estate ventures and other business interests.
During his business career, Trump has built office towers, hotels, casinos,
golf courses, and other branded facilities worldwide. He has been elected the 45th U.S. president in the 2016 election on the
Republican ticket, defeating Democratic nominee Ms Hillary Clinton, and is
scheduled to take office on January 20, 2017.
Some media represents that Ms Clinton
won the popular vote by about 400,000 votes and that this is only the fourth
time in history that a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the
election.

Sounds a
familiar rhetoric from a Dravidan leader everytime his party loses. Back home, the polls for
Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies and the bypoll for
Thirupparankundram Assembly constituency are to be held on November 19,
2016. Election Commission had cancelled
the polls for Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies, originally
scheduled along with all other constituencies on May 16, following seizure of a
huge sum of money by election officials. The bypoll in Thirupparankundram
Assembly constituency was necessitated following the death of AIADMK member
S.M. Seenivel, who won the seat in Madurai district but passed away before he
took oath as the member of the 15th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

In
Tamil Nadu politics, in the run up to the assembly polls what has spoiled the
crucial strategies of smaller parties and seems to be swinging the election
arithmetics in favour of the Dravidian majors (DMK, AIADMK) are how ‘sleeper’
like cells burrowed inside the smaller parties, revolt, change sides at the
insistence of the Dravidian majors. As has been observed, there would be
defections, floating of new party and new alliances of smaller parties – and in
by-elections (or elections when held separately for a couple of constituencies)
– most smaller parties would stay away, not keen to expose themselves.

The announcement
of 8th Nov 2016, has sent shockwaves on some as PM Shri Narendra
Modi withdrew 500- and 1,000-rupee bills from circulation, aiming to shrink the
country’s vast, informal “black” economy. The plan, top secret until Mr. Modi’s
announcement, was hailed by financial analysts as bold and potentially
transformational for India. It is also a high-stakes experiment: Though other
Indian leaders have withdrawn currency notes, none have reduced the country’s
supply of cash so drastically or so abruptly. The two bills being withdrawn
make up 80 percent of the cash in circulation. Its impact is sure to be felt in
Thanjai / Aravakurichi elections !!

As Donald J. Trump began
to solidify his path to the presidency on Tuesday night, international markets
fell sharply. Wall Street was expected to react similarly, but was up on
Wednesday. Throughout the presidential race, financial indicators had moved as
the odds changed in favor of one candidate or the other. In recent days, news
favouring Hillary Clinton’s campaign was accompanied by surges in stock prices,
while news favouring Mr. Trump’s campaign coincided with reverse swings. It is not for the stock markets to decide and
in some ways the Americans have elected the most inexperienced president in American
history. In the office’s storied 227-year existence — from George Washington to
Barack Obama — there has never been a president-elect who has entirely lacked both
political and military service. Donald Trump will change that. The previous US
presidents (1789 to 2016) came into the White House with an average of 13 years
in public office and 5.6 years of military service. Donald Trump has none, on both counts !

President-elect Donald J.
Trump said on Twitter on Friday morning, two days after his astonishing
victory. “Will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who
will be running our government!”. Unlike
most new presidents, Mr. Trump comes into office with no elective-office
experience, no coherent political agenda and no bulging binder of policy
proposals. During the campaign he has
left a trail of inflammatory, statements on issues from immigration and race to
terrorism and geopolitics.

As it could happen, the
outgoing President Obama is reportedly desparate — as he contemplates all his accomplishments
going down the drain at the hands of a man he has total contempt for — when he
is willing to do something so against his nature. Nudging Bernie Sanders and
Joe Biden toward the exit, Obama was the ultimate establishmentarian.

The popular social media, Facebook
has been in the eye of a post-election storm for the last few days, embroiled
in accusations that it helped spread misinformation and fake news stories that influenced
how the American electorate voted. The online conversation among Facebook’s
executives on Tuesday, which was one of several private message threads that
began among the company’s top ranks, showed that the social network was
internally questioning what its responsibilities might be.

What would losers do
>> ? - Hillary Clinton on Saturday
cast blame for her surprise election loss on the announcement by the F.B.I.
director, James B. Comey, days before the election that he had revived the
inquiry into her use of a private email server. In her most extensive remarks
since she conceded the race to Donald J. Trump early Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton
told donors on a 30-minute conference call that Mr. Comey’s decision to send a
letter to Congress about the inquiry 11 days before Election Day had thrust the
controversy back into the news and had prevented her from ending the campaign
with an optimistic closing argument. Mrs. Clinton said a second letter from Mr.
Comey, clearing her once again, which came two days before Election Day, had
been even more damaging.

Further news : Vice
President-elect Mike Pence will take over as the leader of Donald J. Trump’s
transition effort, pushing aside Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, as
Mr. Trump moves quickly to assemble a government after his stunning upset
victory, the transition team is quoted as saying.